Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-07-11
HURLEY'S HUMILIATION.
THE NOTED WISCONSIN TOWN AGAIN
ScouRGeD BY FLAMES,
Which Leave Its Site a Bed Of Ashes
with Here and There a
Chared Corpse.

Dozen Lives Lost on Yachting Exear-
sion-Other Fatalities.
ASHLAND, Wis, july l1-For the fourth
time in its brief history the mining town of
Hurley, on the Gogebic range, has been Wis
tied with a terrible fire, this time to the al
most total destruction Of the town and the
loss of nearly, if not quite, a score Of lives,
and less than two weeks ago. June Is, two
blocks in the business center were burned to
the ground in as many hours at a cost Of
Sloo,0e4 The tract thus devastated was
swarrning with workmen Saturday and in
short time would have been rebuilt on much
larger scale than before The workmen laid
down their tools at & O'Clock and drew their
weeks wages, which two hours later many of
them were spending in the numerous saloons
downtown
Between 3 and O'Clock the Alcazsrtheater
"a large bser hall and variety show on Main
street-was swarmiDg with these and other
patrons, gamblers, and attaches OF the place
One of the latter, a waiter girl and variety
actress, went to the top loft of the building
WIN ntA III t%tliIt nc lle III y
to have dropped for almost instantly after
her disappearance from the lower floor
COLUMN OF FIRE
shot skvward from the roof of the building,
and second later the structure was abla7a
from the cellar up A large building, but, like
everything else in Hurley, constructed wholly
of fat pine. it fell in an instant prey to the
fire The upper floors were filed with women,
who, realizing their terrible plight, with no
possible escape from death, added their
screams to the already indescribable chaos,
and through the glare these wretched Great
ures were sen and heard but for moment
before the flames folded in upon them and
swallowed them up
The Aicazar stood for less than half an
hour. The adjoining building was grocery
abundantly stocked with coal oil The gro
Gerry took fire on the instant, and a barrel of
The OIL WAS IGSITED:
an explosion followed and the doom Of the
place was settled.
The town was built upon a north side hill
and extended from the lake Shore railroad
tracks southwark mp to the summit of the
range. A street leads up from the Lake Shore
station past the Burton house, q large hotel
to the SHAFT OF the Germania mine Intersect-
ing this street at right angles, and running
along the bottom Of the slope, east and west.
is the man street Near the corner Of these
two thoroughfares stood the Alcazar. to the
south and east Of which, in a region about a
third of d nlle square, lay almost the entire
city
ind he
Sa turday night, 50 that the little city lay ex-
actly IN the
PATHWAY OF THE FLAMES
as they arose from the Alcazar Building
after building succnuibed as the fire marched
east and northwari Sparks and cinders
mounted on the wind and were sent far
ahead with the message Of destruction Every
house vas a wood box and eourted the
flames The fire department. whose chief,
warned by the disaster of last month had
resorted to daily training of his forces, was
found to he powerless in the general panic
Men could not be controlled or made TO
work
Nor was this the worst Like all mining
CAMPS Hurley swarrnei with
TIN HORN GAMBLERS AND RoUGHs,
long since banished from more civilized com
nunities to such as these. A public disaster
was private feast, and far from working to
help the CITY they contributed to the spread
Of the destruction, carrying brands of fire
into buildings not vet touched and taking
advantage of the panic to loot at large
Dozens of these scoundrels were seen in the
street boldly replacing their worn garments
with suits Of cloth snaiched from the
shelves Of burning tailor shops. Nothing es-
capped thelr hands They seized bottles Of
liquor from the saloons and drank till some
| of them fell down unconscious in the midst of
the devastation and burned to death
Within an hour everything in Hurley east
Of the street running up the bill was in ashes
| and the people, such as had themselves es-
capped the flames, were either
WILDLY RUSHING ABOUT
the edge of the ruin or else standing on the
brow of the bin stupidity staring at the terri
| bic scene. The Burton house, by great good
| fortune. was barely saved, though the flames
at one time crossed the street under its roof
Many thus found shelter who must otherwise
have spent the night in the woods
A nunber of those who had saved some
| property from the fire of two weeks ago
were quartered in the district now burned
and by the second visitation lost all their pos
sessions.
No attempt has vet been made to estimate
the financial los. Most of the burned build
| ings were rude, but many of them contained
valuable stocks and some of the saloons were
| extensively fitted up Nearly if not quite
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUILDINGS
were consumed. Among these was the bank
of Hurley and the American Express COM
panvs office whose safes are visible, upturned
| in the ruins All that remains Of the town
is the Burton hotel and another smaller ho-
tel the Lake Shore station and two or three
new residences on the very summit of the
slope whose detached position saved them.
| There is no insurance, as all the companies
| cancelled their policies Immediately after the
| late fire The Western Union office was de-
| stroyed. and there was no communication
with this town, forty miles away, until Sun
| day morning. Conductor Jones. of the Lake
Shore train, which passed through Hurley at
80 Sunday morning reported the total de
struction of the town as described. The ex-
press agent on the same train found time TO
| go about the ruins He says that on the open
street was stretched in a row twelve bodies,
CHAREED BEYOND RECOGNITION,
| already taken from the ruins. Under the
ruins of the Alcazar. in a pile Of Goals and
charred timbers, 50 hot as to be unapproach-
| sble, were visible three other bodies. The
| opinion prevailed in Hurley that numbers of
other bodies were still to be found So great
| is the CONSERVATION thus far, and so recent
the shock that no special effort has been
made to investigate further
LATER-The following names of those who
were burned alive in the AlcaZar have been
aseertained: Frank Young, Sadie McCabe,
William Jackson, J. W. Vanquirk, Samuel
Haley, Title Moore, Mabel Goodrich, Sadie
| Wells, hrs Fenton, Laura Brainerd. All
were actors. Seven bodies in the building
are yet unidentified.
A FATAL PLEASURE EXCURSION
Over Dozen Persons Drowned by the